Letter: Negotiating under threat?

Editor: Mr. Boehner as Speaker for the House Republicans says the reason for the budget impasse is that President Obama will not negotiate. How can you negotiate not passing a budget or the even more serious problem of not increasing the federal debt ceiling which is coming up soon? You can’t. You either pass these bills or not. You can, prior to the vote, negotiate what is to be in the budget or the size of the increase in the debt ceiling and its duration. But what the Republicans want to negotiate are changes in the unrelated Affordable Health Care Act, a.k.a Obamacare, using threats of not passing a budget and /or not raising the debt ceiling to force this issue. This is called negotiating under threat, which is usually not acceded to on the basis that it encourages such behavior in the future. It is not really negotiating but more like extortion, if I rightly understand this word.

Boehner and the rest of the rational Republicans in the House should stand up to their fanatic faction. Presumably the fanatics will be mindlessly returned to office in 2014. But likely enough Republican representatives in more contested districts will be defeated so that the they will lose their house majority. It will then be a classic case of winning a battle but losing the war and in the process causing a lot of collateral damage for the next year. Anyway it can’t go on for that long so why not resolve it now.

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You don't negotiate with pirates, or criminals.
To hold an entire country hostage in an attempt to gut The Affordable Care Act is the worst and most disgusting example of both.
If I were the President I would have every one of them arrested for treason and thrown in prison.

Its' funny Herold how your "opinion" is exactly what they are spouting on MSNBC every day. So is that your opinion or the talking points of the White House and the democratic party? I think we all know that answer.

And the short answer is because the President is not a King. We have three branches of government that was designed for checks and balances specifically to stop any unpopular or unworkable law or piece of legislation that the Executive branch tries to jam down the throats of the American people.

And that "fanatic faction" term that your carelessly repeat...stand for smaller government, lower taxes and capitalism. Exactly what built this country into the what is is today.

No Herold, tha actual lunatic fringe are the ones sitting in the White House that YOU elected trying to dimantle the constitution and the fabric of the once great country.

What Obama is doing is called Chicago Style Politics — dirty, name-calling, blame game, etc. Republicans have repeatedly tried to negotiate and have been ignored — on both the debt limit and the ObamaCare. BOTH are taking our country straight toward a huge financial mess that will take years to work our way out. Which is worse? A bank account that is down for a few days or a bank account that is down for years to come?
Obama was elected to represent the people of this country and the only thing he represents are the left wing socialists whose mantra is more like "give me all your money and we will take care of you" — with all the inefficiency of our government?
All previous attempts by the GOP to negotiate have been futile — for the past 5 years! What does it take to get Obama to negotiate? Obama has said each time, "give me what I want and then we will talk." Allowing the government shutdown is a last ditch hope for the national economy and to get Obama to sit down at the negotiating table before the bill is passed. Obama just refused, again, and then the Obama camp tries to counter by purposefully trying to make the shutdown as painful as possible. Cut death benefits for veterans? Close national monuments? Much of it was a publicity stunt to try to blame the GOP.
All of it is Chicago Style Politics at its worst.

What the Tea Partyers are doing is classic extortion and only deliberate blindness can fail to see it.
I'm sure they believe it is needed but that does not change the nature of what's happening.
Most polls, in fact all that I've seen, show the Republicans being blamed for the shutdown much more than the President or the Democrats.
If the Tea Party (as distinct from the Republicans as a group) were correct in their assessment of the ACA, the smart thing to do would have been to step back, allow it to go into effect, then repeal it when the American people overwhelmingly voted their fellow travelers into office.
That they can't do that shows that either they don't believe their own propaganda, they're worried that the ACA will work and increase the power of the Democrats, or...maybe they're so fanatical that reason has left them behind.
I suspect they don't really believe their own propaganda. Ironically, this is usually a smart move for a politician.